The Swamp

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:33 pm The fundamental problem is that for-profit corporations exist to make profits for their shareholders. Their managers have a fiduciary duty to do so.

Historically, hasn’t the (supposedly) ideologically neutral media been the exception rather than the rule?

Republican paranoia over migrants has reached a new level of absurdity, as a State Representative and the State GOP Chair launched a conspiracy that buses of migrants were invading Michigan. It turns out it was the Gonzaga basketball team arriving for the game in the NCAA tournament.

...

The hoax was started my Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock, whose bio on twitter describes himself as, 'Trump-endorsed, Ranked Most Conservative State Rep, Freedom Caucus, Anti-Communist.' Maddock posted that three buses of "illegal invaders" just loaded up at the Detroit Metro Airport." He had no evidence or proof whatsoever that these were migrants, but Republican hysteria and conspiracies don't require proof.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:07 am MI GOP Launches 'Migrant Invader Bus' Hoax on Gonzaga Hoops Team

Republican paranoia over migrants has reached a new level of absurdity, as a State Representative and the State GOP Chair launched a conspiracy that buses of migrants were invading Michigan. It turns out it was the Gonzaga basketball team arriving for the game in the NCAA tournament.

...

The hoax was started my Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock, whose bio on twitter describes himself as, 'Trump-endorsed, Ranked Most Conservative State Rep, Freedom Caucus, Anti-Communist.' Maddock posted that three buses of "illegal invaders" just loaded up at the Detroit Metro Airport." He had no evidence or proof whatsoever that these were migrants, but Republican hysteria and conspiracies don't require proof.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:49 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:07 am MI GOP Launches 'Migrant Invader Bus' Hoax on Gonzaga Hoops Team

Republican paranoia over migrants has reached a new level of absurdity, as a State Representative and the State GOP Chair launched a conspiracy that buses of migrants were invading Michigan. It turns out it was the Gonzaga basketball team arriving for the game in the NCAA tournament.

...

The hoax was started my Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock, whose bio on twitter describes himself as, 'Trump-endorsed, Ranked Most Conservative State Rep, Freedom Caucus, Anti-Communist.' Maddock posted that three buses of "illegal invaders" just loaded up at the Detroit Metro Airport." He had no evidence or proof whatsoever that these were migrants, but Republican hysteria and conspiracies don't require proof.

In fairness, there were a bunch of really tall people of color.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:49 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:07 am MI GOP Launches 'Migrant Invader Bus' Hoax on Gonzaga Hoops Team

Republican paranoia over migrants has reached a new level of absurdity, as a State Representative and the State GOP Chair launched a conspiracy that buses of migrants were invading Michigan. It turns out it was the Gonzaga basketball team arriving for the game in the NCAA tournament.

...

The hoax was started my Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock, whose bio on twitter describes himself as, 'Trump-endorsed, Ranked Most Conservative State Rep, Freedom Caucus, Anti-Communist.' Maddock posted that three buses of "illegal invaders" just loaded up at the Detroit Metro Airport." He had no evidence or proof whatsoever that these were migrants, but Republican hysteria and conspiracies don't require proof.

In fairness, there were a bunch of really tall people of color.

brian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:57 pm They’re not sending their best (the Michigan GOP)

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 11:38 am

Best one liners:

"Imagine being the diversity hire at your own baby shower."

"Jim Crowed her to the back AGAIN."

"She sticks out like a black thumb."

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 5:20 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 9:10 pm Graham’s pushing for a national abortion ban. Trump is positioning himself as in favor of the states doing it (which is just pre-election politics). Trump doesn’t like his butt-kissers not 100% endorsing whatever he says.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 10:45 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 9:10 pm Graham’s pushing for a national abortion ban. Trump is positioning himself as in favor of the states doing it (which is just pre-election politics). Trump doesn’t like his butt-kissers not 100% endorsing whatever he says.

Trump is going to change his position on that about 5 times before the end of the week.

But it couldn't happen to a nicer guy than Graham.

Giff wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:32 pm Arizona has now banned all abortion in the state based off the enforcement of a law from before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state.

Giff wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:32 pm Arizona has now banned all abortion in the state based off the enforcement of a law from before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:21 pm

Giff wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:32 pm Arizona has now banned all abortion in the state based off the enforcement of a law from before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state.

And Trump thinks that "Leave it up to the States!" is going to defuse the Abortion issue.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:32 pm

And I don't think Trump is quite as moronic as we all like to think.

It's not like he just threw a dart or flipped a coin or thought this up while taking a #2.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:47 pm I'm certainly not in the business of going to bat for Trump. But the idea that he just wanders the halls blathering about is just.. I dunno, inaccurate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... nt-states/

He's impulsive and likes to "trust his gut." But he spent a year hashing this out.

I think we see him rambling at his rallies and assume that's what he's like all the time. He's not.

In some ways, Adams’s shtick is conventionally conservative: He’s Christian, he’s very concerned about there being only two genders, he rails against “woke.” In other ways, his version of MAGA manhood is so over-the-top, so uncanny that it almost seems like performance art. The parody theory seems especially strong when Adams’s posts on X veer into double-entendre territory — juicing engagement from snarky foes and howling fans with posts about his butcher (“I love watching Mario handle my meat”) or golf (“A foursome with the boys will be the most fun you will ever have in your entire life”).

He writes about how if your wife is “high-maintenance” then you’re a “loser” no matter how hot she is. And about his love of steak.

“Alpha males don’t care about time changes, we wake up at 4AM every single morning regardless of the circumstances,” he wrote on X last month, a few days after the clocks sprang forward for daylight saving time. “64oz tomahawk ribeyes aren’t going to eat themselves!”

Adams says he never heard his dad say the words “I love you.” But he doesn’t hold this against the old man, who died in 2021. He calls him the ultimate “alpha” and a great father who pushed his son to achieve excellence.

In a Trumpified GOP, and a Trumpified Washington, the answer is yes. He is a presidential appointee to the board of Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Center, which, according to its website, “provides nonpartisan counsel and insights on global affairs to policymakers.” Donald Trump, who bestowed him with that honor during his last term, has recently made Adams an official campaign surrogate as the former president attempts to regain control of the White House.

A_B wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:51 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:47 pm I'm certainly not in the business of going to bat for Trump. But the idea that he just wanders the halls blathering about is just.. I dunno, inaccurate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... nt-states/

He's impulsive and likes to "trust his gut." But he spent a year hashing this out.

I think we see him rambling at his rallies and assume that's what he's like all the time. He's not.

Which to me, is a dead giveaway that it wasn't his own idea. He's flip flopped 13 times on abortion in the past 25 years.

A_B wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:40 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:32 pm

And I don't think Trump is quite as moronic as we all like to think.

It's not like he just threw a dart or flipped a coin or thought this up while taking a #2.

I'm going to disagree where it comes to running a campaign. He was absolutely told to say this by someone who knows how to make it seem to Trump like it was his idea. He can rile people up, but I truly don't believe he can think that far ahead when it comes to voting issues. While this seems "proactive" I do not believe that to be the case at all.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 3:03 pm
I think what you are pointing out is that he's, by far, the least principled president we've ever had. The only calculation he makes is how it helps his bottomline, and secondarily how a position helps his polling numbers.

Giff wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:32 pm Arizona has now banned all abortion in the state based off the enforcement of a law from before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state.

In 2016, Ducey expanded the court from five to seven justices, despite objections from the court’s justices, media outlets and every Democratic legislator.

Ducey has now appointed five of the seven justices, which included several controversial picks, such as Clint Bolick, who spent nearly a decade as a litigator for the Goldwater Institute, a powerful special interest group with a long history of working to privatize public schools and one of the parties challenging Prop. 208.

Ducey also appointed former Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, a close ally of the disgraced former sheriff, Joe Arpaio, and someone many considered far too political for the court.

Montgomery was originally rejected by the judicial nominating committee, but that didn’t deter Ducey. He simply replaced the members who objected to Montgomery with ones favorable to him. And as a result, the court has lurched further to the right even as our population has grown more moderate.

While Jones lived in Arizona, he was elected to represent Tucson in the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly. And then, when that legislature convened in 1864, he was elected speaker of the House.

And it was that legislature — the one Jones presided over in 1864, after he had already abandoned his first wife, and married a 12-year-old and was just weeks away from marrying a 15-year-old, though still a few years away from marrying a 14-year-old — it was that legislature that passed a law reading, “Every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years.”

And it was that piece of legislation that, earlier this week, was reinstated as law of the land in Arizona.